Spur of the Moment
by AnimeWolfGirl9
Summary: When a spur of the moment decision by Asseylum forces Slaine and Inaho into a hiking trip, the blonde wishes that he was anywhere but here.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters/places from Aldnoah Zero and everything belongs to their respective owners.**

Note: Please tell me I'm not the only one who wants this to happen :)

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Spur of the Moment

What could be worse than being mistreated by the Vers nobles? Slaine often had wondered about such an answer many times before. He had told himself that as long as he was able to protect Asseylum – to whom he owed his life to – then he would be able to put up with whatever he had to. After a particularly harsh reprimand, when his limbs ached and his mind was dull, he found himself thinking back on the happier times – when the princess of Vers had wanted him to teach her of everything on Earth.

That had been three years ago, when his life had been brighter. Now, his current state of living left him many hours to think. Aside from the occasional visits, there wasn't much else to do. He was obedient; he didn't try to cause trouble, so the officials in charge of watching him never beat him like the Vers nobles had.

The answer to his question, however, seemed very simple now. As a branch hit him in the face, the blonde teen couldn't help but feel irked. _That's the third time…_

"I don't see why you, of all people, would want to drag me to a remote island…" Slaine trailed off, not wanting to admit how familiar the island actually was. "To go for a walk."

"Seylum's the one who requested it, actually." The dark-haired teen in front of him – Kaizuka Inaho – stopped to glance back at him, holding another tree branch in a bent arc. The other teen was probably trying to be helpful by temporarily clearing the branches that blocked their path but, as he narrowly avoided another smack in the face by the closest branch, the blonde decided it must have been some form of payback. _With as little emotion that he shows, you think payback wouldn't be physically possible for him._

As the two continued their trek, Slaine knew that his thought wasn't true. The Terran in front of him had, on multiple occasions, the chance to bestow payback on him. Whether it be a request from Asseylum or some other strange reasoning, the dark-haired teen had decided not to. It was probably some strategic move that Slaine had missed.

"She did?"

" _Hai_." The small response left them trudging along in silence, any chance of a conversation being enacted almost none. The shock that he felt at another request from the princess – as well as the anger that rose at the dark-haired teen's lack of a proper honorific – was enough to almost make him fall behind.

 _She still cares._ The thought forced his gaze to the ground. Some part of him felt that he didn't deserve her forgiveness. Despite the fact that – everything he had done had been for her safety – he knew he must have messed up somewhere. It had gotten to the point that his plans had no longer been focused on protecting her, but on using others to further those distant plans. _How much have I changed – no, have we all changed – since the day the Vers Knights invaded Earth?_

"What if I would choose to run off?" The blonde teen inquired, finding that the possibility was still likely. He didn't want to be trudging through the wilderness with his (former?) enemy, and he was pretty sure the other teen didn't want to either.

The island they were on – Tanegashima – was where Slaine had first seen Inaho – or more specifically, where Slaine had encountered the Orange Kataphrakt that the teen had been using. It had a large amount of square footage for an island, but the only way on or off was by aircraft or a boat. They had only brought one boat, which he could have easily used to get off the island…

"It wouldn't be hard to find you," at first, Slaine took the teen's words for an insult, but what was said next caused him greater surprise. "A small tracker was included in your meal this morning."

"?!" An almost inaudible noise came from the blonde teen as he stopped walking, choosing to stare at the other boy in shock. Why did it really surprise him? He wasn't sure. Of course they would put a tracer on him, but they made him eat it…?

Inaho looked back at him, probably noticing the conflicting emotions swirling in his eyes. "Don't worry. It should be out of your system in less than 48 hours by-"

Slaine stopped the other teen from informing him any further of the digestive system, choosing to walk straight past him in a hurried gait up the hill. The dark-haired teen followed him without another word. Weaving between the leafy trees took time, but it gave him some sort of distraction. Five minutes into him leading the way… he realized he wasn't necessarily sure where they were going.

"Why exactly are we out here?" he felt as though the question should have been answered by now, but Inaho seemed to skirt around the answer every time he asked.

"Like you said, to take a walk."

"No, I mean-" Slaine's impatient reply was cut off before he could continue.

"Seylum requested it." Since the phrase was repeated, the blonde could only guess that he wasn't going to get anything beyond that. He sighed, stopping once again as he dug his heels into the ground, making sure he wouldn't fall down the hill.

"I really dislike you, Orange."

"Think what you must, Gull."

The banter ended quickly as the old – or in Slaine's case being called 'gull' it was new – nicknames were exchanged. Inaho quickly surpassed him again, continuing along at a slower pace. Was the other teen tiring, or were they actually getting closer to their destination? The blonde didn't know simply because Inaho wouldn't tell him anything.

The slope to the hill gradually evened out after a while, making their trek up the island's surface easier. The air was gradually growing cooler as time continued to tick by in silence. The small glimpses of the sky that he caught through the trees were quickly turning into the colors of sunset.

Inaho sat down on a log a few feet away from him, their destination apparently reached. The teen was staring out at a particularly large glimpse of the ocean in the distance. Slaine had no clue what he was thinking, but he didn't want to move any closer, so he stopped before he reached the log.

"Seylum thought that a change of scenery might do you good," Inaho's sudden words caused him to look over at the teen, who was most likely repeating what the princess had said. "She didn't want us to hold too tightly onto the past. She forgives you and thought that, by the two of us spending time together, we would be able to move past what had happened. Since you are technically dead to the public, we had to choose somewhere remote."

The decision seemed to make sense, but… after everything that had happened here, it seemed a lot more than just coincidence. "And what about you?" Slaine's question caused the other boy to fall silent. The blonde wasn't sure if he could forget about the past – _be friends, that's what Asseylum would say_ – and he wasn't sure if the dark-haired teen could either. Then again, he never had been able to tell what the other teen was thinking.

"I think everyone… deserves a second chance. That we can all learn from our mistakes in the past and do better." Inaho turned to look at him as he got up from the log. "Even you could do that much. Only time will tell though."

Slaine had no further words as Inaho passed him, most likely signifying that their trip was going to be over. He took one last look at the sky before following the other teen back down the hill, the conflicting words still stuck in his mind.

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Alright, first time writing Slaine! I have to say, Inaho is kind of fun to write when it's not from his POV (when it is, then I feel like everything has to be calculated; hence why I chose to do Slaine's POV for this one). I feel like this could continue (with the hiking trip turned into a camping trip) but I'll leave it as complete for now and see what everyone else thinks. I hope no one was too OOC and please let me know in a review!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


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